Canning Tomato Sauce

Wash, remove stems, and trim off bruised or discolored portions. To prevent juice from separating, quickly cut about 1 pound of fruit into quarters and put directly into saucepan. Heat immediately to boiling while crushing with a potato masher.

Continue to slowly add and crush freshly cut tomato quarters to the boiling mixture. Make sure the mixture boils constantly and vigorously while you add the remaining tomatoes. Simmer 5 minutes after you add all pieces. If you are not concerned about juice separation, simply slice or quarter tomatoes into a large saucepan. Crush, heat, and simmer for 5 minutes before juicing.

Press heated crushed tomatoes through a sieve or food mill to remove skins and seeds. Simmer tomato juice in large-diameter saucepan until sauce reaches desired consistency. Boil until volume is reduced by about one-third for thin sauce, or by one-half for thick sauce.

Add bottled lemon juice and salt to hot jars. Fill jars with hot tomato sauce, leaving ¼-inch head space.

Adjust lids and process the correct time for your altitude (I process my pint jars for 45 minutes and quart jars for 50 minutes).

Add to pint size hot canning jars:
1 TBSP lemon juice (to achieve proper acidity levels for safe canning)
½ tsp. salt (optional)

Add to quart size hot canning jars:
2 TBSP lemon juice (to achieve proper acidity levels for safe canning)
1 tsp. salt (optional)



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I like to can my tomato sauce plain without additional seasonings so I can add the seasonings depending on what I'm using it for. Guidelines are from the National Center for Home Preservation .

Staking Tomatoes- Florida Weave

This year we staked all of our tomatoes with the Florida Weave technique and it's been my favorite way to stake the tomatoes so far as it uses less T stakes and it keeps the walkways clear between the rows of tomatoes.

We used (1) T stake for every two tomato plants, then weaved twine between the plants and stakes. We did a total of three rows of twine (adding a row as the plants grew). Here is a website that gives more detailed instructions.

Gardening Companions- Lettuce and Tomatoes

Space is always tight in our garden and each year I try to find new ways to get the biggest crop from our small garden.

This year our tomatoes and lettuce are sharing a raised bed together and I've loved how it has worked out! While the tomato plants are still small, the lettuce and spinach are flourishing. Once the tomato plants crowd out the lettuce it will be about the time the weather gets too warm for lettuce.

I have read that tomato plants will shade the lettuce as the weather warms up helping to extend the harvesting time of lettuce and spinach. We'll see how it goes.


Dinner tonight: Balsamic vinegar chicken salad with fresh strawberries, lettuce and spinach from the garden.

Mortgage Lifters

We have found out all time favorite tomato variety- Mortgage Lifters. The flesh of Mortgage Lifter is thick, tangy, juicy, with relatively few seeds and not too acidic. We have grown a lot of varieties but flavor wise, this variety tops the competition. Brandywine's come in second place for us but they can grow into unusual shapes making them more challenging to prepare and eat. Mortgage lifters grow to a large round shape making it easy to slice, roast, can or freeze.

Background on the variety:
Mortgage Lifter heirloom tomato was developed in the early 1930's by a man named M.C. “Radiator Charlie” Byles. Byles was a radiator repairman who, like many of his countrymen, struggled to keep his finances in order during the Great Depression. As the story goes, Radiator Charlie cross-bred the largest tomatoes he could find in his hometown of Logan, West Virginia, and sold the resulting plants for a dollar each. The profits he earned were substantial enough that he was able to pay down his mortgage with them!

Mortgage Lifter is an indeterminate tomato variety, which means that the plants will grow vines and continue to grow taller as the gardening season progresses. Without pruning, the plant will continue to grow longer. To allow the plant to focus on growing higher yields of fruit, pinch the suckers on the tomato vine, and stake the plant well.

Reference: http://www.suite101.com/content/mortgage-lifter-heirloom-tomato-a53123

Roasted Tomato Soup

Roasted Tomato Soup

3 LB tomatoes
3 TBSP olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1 cup onions, medium chopped (or 1/4 cup frozen caramelized onions)
2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (28 oz.) can diced tomatoes (optional)
4 cups chicken broth
Thyme (fresh or dried)
1 cup packed fresh basil, finely chopped (can substitute with dried basil in a pinch)

1 cup milk or half and half (optional)


Heat oven to 400° F. On a baking sheet, combine the tomatoes and 2 TBSP of the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss the ingredients to coat evenly and spread them in a single layer. Roast the tomatoes until they are shriveled with brown spots (about 50-75 minutes).

In a large pot, heat 1 TBSP of olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions until they are softened, then add the garlic and sauté briefly making sure to not burn the garlic. Add the canned tomatoes with their juice, the broth, thyme, basil and the roasted tomatoes (including any liquid on the baking sheet). Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce and simmer partially covered for 40 minutes.

Using a food processor or blender, puree soup until it is smooth. Then push soup through a sieve or strainer to remove all pulp and seeds. Return the soup to the pot and stir in the milk or half and half. Season to taste with additional salt, pepper, thyme and basil. Warm the soup over medium heat, stirring often and taking care not to let the soup boil. Freezes well.



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We LOVE this soup. We’ve made it a few times adjusting the recipe each time so it’s still a work in progress. It’s very forgiving with proportions and every batch we’ve made we enjoyed. We make a triple batch of this recipe from our fall harvest of tomatoes, onions, garlic, thyme and basil in the garden to have on hand in the freezer for quick soup and sandwich dinners through the winter. Thanks to My Muffin Thursdays and the Family Fun February 2009 issue for the inspiration for this recipe.

Freezer Tomato Puree

Freezer Tomato Puree
http://savoryseasonings.blogspot.com/

Roma tomatoes

Slice Roma tomatoes in half and gently squeeze over the sink to remove jelly and juice. Process tomatoes through a Victorio Food Strainer using the applesauce/tomato juice attachment. Freezer in containers for later use.



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I enjoy using tomato puree for our all time favorite salsa recipe. During the summer I puree tomatoes from our garden and from the farmers market, then freeze in 2.5 cup proportions for later use. The puree freezes great. Simply thaw, then add a freshly chopped tomato, onion and jalapeno for a great salsa throughout the off season.

My favorite containers for freezer storage are the Rubbermaid Take-along 2.9 cup storage containers. They stack great, hold up well to repeated washings and if they break they are cheap to replace (10 for $3.97).

A half bushel (23LB box) of tomatoes produces 35 cups of tomato puree or 14 2.5 cup proportions. 2009 prices are $16.00 a box.

Freezer Tomatoes

Fresh ripe tomatoes
Quart size ziplock freezer bags

If you have the freezer space, freezing tomatoes is incredibly fast and easy (last night it took 35 minutes to freeze 14 quarts of tomatoes including clean up time). We use frozen tomatoes in soups, sauces, fajitas’, chili’s or any recipe calling for canned tomatoes. To use, simply run warm water over the tomato and the skins easily fall off.

Directions:
Wash, core and quarter tomatoes. Fill quart size bags with tomatoes and store in deep freeze.

Option 2 (flash freezing): Place washed, cored and quartered tomatoes on cookie sheet in freezer. Once frozen, transfer to quart size ziplock bags. Benefits of flash freezing are the tomatoes are frozen separately allowing you to later remove only a portion of the tomatoes from the bag.

Use within 1 year (if kept at 0° F).